Obama in Panic Mode?

As he continues his full-time campaign for re-election, President Obama is showing clear signs of panic -- of the realization that a great many former supporters, particularly centrists and independents, are thoroughly fed up with his massively failed domestic and foreign policies.He can be seen desperately attempting to countervail the growing feeling among many voters that the country doesn't want another four years of what they've been seeing from his administration. His disastrous fiscal policies, for example, he tries to blunt by a ridiculous claim, based on the rantings of an internet columnist, that he is actually a virtual skinflint when it comes to the debt and deficits. This, of course, was totally debunked by real figures worked up by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which show just the opposite.

And, then, recently there were the appearances before Conservative and Orthodox Jewish leaders in which he sought to assuage the unease some have been feeling over his poor treatment of Israel. But the major expression of his panic over the Jewish situation is reflected not by his pandering to American Jewish voters but by the virtual blitz of administration officials who are running to Tel Aviv, one after another as reported in today's NY Times, where they keep harping on selling the notion that the US really would take meaningful action to stop Iran from developing nuclear weaponry.

It's not votes he's after; Israelis don't vote in US elections. The strategy is to lie and assure, pander, and promise -- anything to prevent Israel from seeing the necessity of stopping Iran's nuclear programs sooner rather than later, preferably before the US elections. What absolutely terrifies Obama is the possibility that Netanyahu and his government, now strengthened with the addition of Kadima to his coalition, will finally become exasperated enough to inaugurate a military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Difficult as that will be, it is an existential matter for the Jewish State; and its leadership is realizing that such efforts as Obama may make with sanctions or other non-military actions have absolutely no chance of deterring the mad mullahs.

Should Israel attack Iran, Obama stands no chance of re-election if he stands idly by and refuses to help. And we are not talking just about American Jewish votes, but the much larger number of votes from non-Jewish Americans who support Israel and neither want to see it destroyed nor to open the Middle East to Iranian hegemony.

Unlike the precision raids on the Osirak reactor in Iraq or the Syrian facilities, this time Israel will need assistance, even if only peripheral, from others; and if the US isn't any help, Obama is on the train back to the wards of Chicago. His only hope in this respect is to con the Israelis long enough with phony promises to get past the election without an Israeli strike on Iran. And the more Obama presses on this, the more obvious it is that he fully intends to do nothing that will actually stop the Iranian weaponry programs. The mullahs themselves have made it abundantly clear, and repeated themselves numerous times, that they will not be stopped by diplomacy, sanctions, financial isolation, or anything else.

That leaves force as the only viable solution for an untenable problem, despite Obama's willingness to accept a nuclear Iran in the hopes of "containing" it. One hopes that Israel will wise up before it is too late and mount some sort of attack before the November elections that will leave the Obama administration no choice but to support it (while that Saudis and other ME states will yell and scream publicly and privately cheer Israel's doing their work for them).

The only other hope is for a Republican sweep of both Houses and the Presidency in November which will bring back to power a US government that truly will have Israel's back; but this is too great a risk to bet Israel's very existence on.

As he continues his full-time campaign for re-election, President Obama is showing clear signs of panic -- of the realization that a great many former supporters, particularly centrists and independents, are thoroughly fed up with his massively failed domestic and foreign policies.

He can be seen desperately attempting to countervail the growing feeling among many voters that the country doesn't want another four years of what they've been seeing from his administration. His disastrous fiscal policies, for example, he tries to blunt by a ridiculous claim, based on the rantings of an internet columnist, that he is actually a virtual skinflint when it comes to the debt and deficits. This, of course, was totally debunked by real figures worked up by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which show just the opposite.

And, then, recently there were the appearances before Conservative and Orthodox Jewish leaders in which he sought to assuage the unease some have been feeling over his poor treatment of Israel. But the major expression of his panic over the Jewish situation is reflected not by his pandering to American Jewish voters but by the virtual blitz of administration officials who are running to Tel Aviv, one after another as reported in today's NY Times, where they keep harping on selling the notion that the US really would take meaningful action to stop Iran from developing nuclear weaponry.

It's not votes he's after; Israelis don't vote in US elections. The strategy is to lie and assure, pander, and promise -- anything to prevent Israel from seeing the necessity of stopping Iran's nuclear programs sooner rather than later, preferably before the US elections. What absolutely terrifies Obama is the possibility that Netanyahu and his government, now strengthened with the addition of Kadima to his coalition, will finally become exasperated enough to inaugurate a military attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. Difficult as that will be, it is an existential matter for the Jewish State; and its leadership is realizing that such efforts as Obama may make with sanctions or other non-military actions have absolutely no chance of deterring the mad mullahs.

Should Israel attack Iran, Obama stands no chance of re-election if he stands idly by and refuses to help. And we are not talking just about American Jewish votes, but the much larger number of votes from non-Jewish Americans who support Israel and neither want to see it destroyed nor to open the Middle East to Iranian hegemony.

Unlike the precision raids on the Osirak reactor in Iraq or the Syrian facilities, this time Israel will need assistance, even if only peripheral, from others; and if the US isn't any help, Obama is on the train back to the wards of Chicago. His only hope in this respect is to con the Israelis long enough with phony promises to get past the election without an Israeli strike on Iran. And the more Obama presses on this, the more obvious it is that he fully intends to do nothing that will actually stop the Iranian weaponry programs. The mullahs themselves have made it abundantly clear, and repeated themselves numerous times, that they will not be stopped by diplomacy, sanctions, financial isolation, or anything else.

That leaves force as the only viable solution for an untenable problem, despite Obama's willingness to accept a nuclear Iran in the hopes of "containing" it. One hopes that Israel will wise up before it is too late and mount some sort of attack before the November elections that will leave the Obama administration no choice but to support it (while that Saudis and other ME states will yell and scream publicly and privately cheer Israel's doing their work for them).

The only other hope is for a Republican sweep of both Houses and the Presidency in November which will bring back to power a US government that truly will have Israel's back; but this is too great a risk to bet Israel's very existence on.